KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
Education has been proven to improve the lives of people.
It is what sets us a part in a social and economically aspect. It is the difference between the poor and the rich. It is the difference between someone who makes $50,000 per year and someone who makes $300,000. Looking into our past, those who “know more” or have more knowledge have the advantage over the other.
In the past slaves were not allowed to learn to read and write. It was strictly forbidden.
Being able to read and write would enable the slaves to become a little more powerful by having this knowledge. Slave owners did not want to further enable their slaves by giving them or allowing them to have this knowledge.
It is what sets us a part in a social and economically aspect. It is the difference between the poor and the rich. It is the difference between someone who makes $50,000 per year and someone who makes $300,000. Looking into our past, those who “know more” or have more knowledge have the advantage over the other.
In the past slaves were not allowed to learn to read and write. It was strictly forbidden.
Being able to read and write would enable the slaves to become a little more powerful by having this knowledge. Slave owners did not want to further enable their slaves by giving them or allowing them to have this knowledge.
This allowed the slave owners to always have complete control and domination over slaves by making them appear “dumber” to make themselves seem higher because they knew more. It is also important to emphasize that this ultimately had a psychological affect on slaves.
During this time being able to read and write was the difference between a slave being able to run away successfully or remain in captivity. This was a direct way to deprive slaves and keep them subordinate.
Fast forward to today, In our society people with higher education earn 3x as much over a lifetime than those without it. Often power comes with the purse. Whoever has the biggest purse often has the upper hand in different aspects of society such as social, economic, and most importantly political.
During this time being able to read and write was the difference between a slave being able to run away successfully or remain in captivity. This was a direct way to deprive slaves and keep them subordinate.
Fast forward to today, In our society people with higher education earn 3x as much over a lifetime than those without it. Often power comes with the purse. Whoever has the biggest purse often has the upper hand in different aspects of society such as social, economic, and most importantly political.
Thus, education inequality exists and is one of the main forms of institutional racism. Often children of color(specifically black and Latino) are not offered the same quality education as other races and communities.
In fact, the department of education conducted some research on the matter and found a pattern in the quality of education for coloreds. For example, they noticed that kids were not offered some of the essential courses in math and science, too many kids taught by inexperienced teachers, and a very high percentage of suspension in students of color(Black and Latino).
They noticed that African American, Latino, and native Americans students attended schools with h a higher concentration of first-year teachers than whites do.
For example, the study found that 70% of white students had access to full range of math and science courses in high schools, only 57% of African-American students have access to these courses.
So what does this mean?
Ultimately this is a way to limit the productivity of African-Americans and limits them from becoming full members of society. This keeps the African-American race overall subordinate to other races and never allow blacks to become to powerful.
There is also a direct correlation between economics and politics and the policy making of our country. Often times, the people with the most money are able to fund campaigns and offer contributions to help put the people they want in office. This will allow these particular people to further their own agenda by having a “voice” in the decisions and policies made for the country.
Economic power which comes through education, can also contribute to racial control or white supremacy. The businesses are owned and ran by white individuals or a group of white elites. The people who work for them are typically of color. This in turn creates a social and economical difference of having one race “above” another race.
This has happened over time and is not something that can be fixed in a few years time. The constructs of educational distribution which strongly correlates with economic control, has been created since the first years of slavery. Even if they were to give blacks and people of color the same education and same opportunities as other races, we still would not be able to say we have “racial equality”. People in the dominant society have overlapped people of color in areas such as education and especially economics.
Therefore, limiting the education of people of color, whether it be quality or lack of a higher education, it is a way to deprive people of color from becoming more powerful than they are and to keep them subordinate as a whole.
This proves that educational institutional racism is one of the most important and apparent forms of racism there is.
Sources: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/study-education-inequality/
http://www.thenation.com/blog/178958/14-disturbing-stats-about-racial-inequality-american-public-schools